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On October 19-22 Ilia State University's research boat "St. Ilia" made its first expedition. The members of the expedition were professors of the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Sciences and researchers from the Earth Sciences and Institute of Ecology.

During several days from Poti to Sarpi scientists were scanning the Black Sea continental shelf with the powerful sonar. Sonar is a combined system for Sub-bottom profiling and bottom-surface scanning.

The operating principle is following: Sonar irradiates the acoustic waves of different frequencies, part of which reaches in the settled rocks at depth of several tens of meters and another part spreads on 500 meters line approximately from where it is reflected. The registration of the reflected waves and visualization of the received picture in the real time is done by usage of the special program. Sonar gives horizontal surface relief image as well as the in depth cut.

Near the outfall of the river Natanebi scientists noticed formation that had a strange form. Meshy structure, composed of square shaped objects appeared on the computer's monitor. The length of objects sides is average 10X10 meters. As we almost do not encounter similar forms in nature it was supposed that we are dealing with the ancient settlement, which after rising of Black Sea level appeared 1.5-2 kilometers far from the shore at the 22-25 meters depth. The total area of the research district is several hectares. Approximately 10 kilometers north from the outfall of the river Tskaltsminda researchers also found several separately standing square shaped formations. The length of sides of the most apparent "building" is 12-13 meters and it is situated roughly 1.2 kilometers from the shore at the 30 meters depth. Notably, artifact of this size has never been discovered on the bottom of the Black Sea, even more they are very rare on the universal scale.

On the second day divers checked again abovementioned districts with the help of Sonar. As it became clear objects are covered by several meters of sand layer. In the near future it is planned to study this objects with other geophysical devices and to schedule archeological investigations.
Newest research strengthens more and more the version that once Black Sea was a fresh lake. After finishing the last Ice Age as a result of melting glaciers the level of the world's ocean rose. Mediterranean Sea as well as the oceans experienced transgression and approximately 7.500 years ago, passing the Bosphorus, which before had a dike function, started to fall in the Black Sea. The break-through the "Dike" and formation of Bosphorus is with one version connected to the catastrophic earthquake. Some scientists suppose that the level of the water in the Black Sea was rising catastrophically. But today the majority of scientists think that the modern coast of the Black Sea was forming during 30-35 years.

In the historical past fresh lake shore was rich with natural rescores. Consequently, people were actively settling down in this area. It is logical to assume that in the early Bronze Age there was a possibility of creating sufficiently numerous city type settlements. The raising of the sea level was a reason that shore population moved towards the depth of the land and after stabilizing of the sea level they started settling down again along the sea coast. It is interesting that the date of rising of the Balk Sea level matches Mediterranean and Asian people's tales about the Big Flood. It must be noted that the Black Sea coast is poorly studied in this direction.

There is no doubt that we are dealing with very interesting and even unique discovery. This year's expedition can be counted as a first steps in developing underwater archeology in Georgia.